5 Shigeru Miyamoto games that changed the industry

For Shigeru Miyamoto's birthday, here are his most influential games

Few people in the video game industry have been involved in more global phenomenons than Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto-san has been working at Nintendo since 1977, and his directorial debut occurred just four years later with Donkey Kong – just the first in a long line of success stories for the young game designer.

Today, Miyamoto-san is 70 years old, and we’re taking a look at a few of the games he had a hand in creating that have a lasting legacy to this day. Members of the games industry from media, PR, to developers and beyond often credit Miyamoto with inspiring them to work and create in this medium, and these games are just a few of the reasons why.

Miyamoto's most influential games

Super Mario Bros.

The concept for Mario goes back as far as Jumpman, a mustachioed player avatar in Miyamoto-san’s directorial debut, Donkey Kong. Four years later, after Jumpman had been rebranded in 1983’s Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and is was a revelation. Smooth screen scrolling was still seemingly impossible for many PCs and consoles of the day, and it set the NES apart instantly.

But it wasn’t just the tech that was impressive, it was everything else. Countless essays have been written about how the first stage, 1-1, teaches the player all the mechanics the game requires without ever needing to read a thing. The jump physics were smooth and precise, the music quickly became iconic, and it influenced pretty much every side-scrolling platformer that followed – including those releasing in 2022.

Miyamoto-san has spoken at length about his design philosophy since, and how it led to the creation of Super Mario Bros., even noting that Mario’s dimensions and details were all influenced by the limitations of the system. Yes, the clouds and bushes are actually the same sprite but recolored – and it was small workarounds like this that made the original Super Mario Bros. a minor miracle that just might’ve saved the game industry of the day.

Pokémon Red & Blue

Miyamoto isn’t the mind behind Pokémon, but it would’ve been impossible without his guidance. Satoshi Tajiri’s billion-dollar franchise was originally pitched to Nintendo in 1990, and Shigeru Miyamoto was the one that convinced the company to work with Tajiri on developing Pokémon. In Japan, the protagonist of the Pokémon anime is named Satoshi, and as an homage to Miyamoto-san, his rival is named Shigeru. Shigeru is also a default rival name in the Gen 1 games.

Miyamoto-san is credited with suggesting there be multiple versions of the game so players could trade, which of course is now a staple of all Pokémon generations. He holds producer credits on the first generation of Pokémon games, and most console games up until 2003’s Pokémon Channel. Without Miyamoto-san, it’s possible that the Pokémon series as we know it wouldn’t exist at all.

Super Mario 64

After defining what it meant to make a side-scrolling platformer, Miyamoto-san went on to do it with 3D platformers when developing Super Mario 64. Conceived years earlier while development was happening on the Super Nintendo’s Super FX Chip, Super Mario 64 went into full development in late 1994.

The camera system had to be designed from the ground up, as did Mario’s jump mechanics, the layout of the world, and how a Mario game should operate in a 3D space. This also meant that all characters in the world would have a shadow directly below them at all times – not for realism, but so that players could judge distances and jumps in 3D.

Super Mario 64’s development literally influenced the design of the N64 controller, leading to the analogue stick. It’s fair to say that if not for Super Mario 64, analog controls might’ve taken a fair bit longer to become the standard input device on every controller – save for you mouse and keyboard heathens, of course. Super Mario 64’s influence on the industry cannot be understated.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Miyamoto-san was working as producer across several titles at the same time during this period, and Ocarina of Time was in development at the same time as Super Mario 64. As a result his focus was split, but he still worked as a supervisor on Ocarina of Time, ensuring the game’s five directors worked towards a cohesive vision.

While his early ideas of having the game be played entirely in first-person were scrapped, remnants can still be seen in the final game, such as when aiming a Bow or Hookshot. It was intended to be easier than Super Mario 64 too, but the jury is out on whether or not the team was successful in that regard. Ocarina of Time is now often mentioned in the “best game of all time” lists and discussions, again thanks to the revelations it brought to the medium – including “Z-targeting” – and the lasting influence it has left on those that played it.

Nintendogs

The list of games and products Miyamoto-san has worked on is incredibly long, but when it comes to true phenomenons that have a lasting impact, there are few bigger than Nintendogs. This pet simulator managed to become the second-best Nintendo DS title of all time, with almost 24 million players across all versions of the game. If you were a child or teenager at the time, it was tough to escape people that were raising their digital dogs.

This is credited as being the game that propelled the Nintendo DS to mainstream success, leading it to sell more than 154 million units, making it the second-best selling video game console of all time, just shy of the PS2. And all of that is thanks to Miyamoto-san’s shetland sheepdog, Pikku, who inspired the concept behind the game.

Beyond those games, Miyamoto’s influence in still felt in the industry today, and he remains the perfect man to introduce upcoming games like Pikmin 4, and major projects such as 2023’s upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, on which Miyamoto is still working as a producer. So take a moment today to wish Shigeru Miyamoto a happy birthday, and imagine the dark, dark world video games would be today without his influence.